Flacks Back Shock Jocks

"If we start losing small, independent broadcasters because they can't afford the risk of getting fined on some arbitrary application of a vague standard, all we'll have left are a few big media companies." So reads a letter from the Public Relations Society of America to Federal Communications Commission Chair Michael Powell. The PRSA opposes large increases in the FCC's maximum indecency fine; legislation just passed by House subcommittee would hike the current $27,500 limit to $500,000. The "widening and increasingly polarized campaign to clean up the nation's airwaves" makes strange political bedfellows; one of PRSA President Del Galloway's specialties is "employee communications during a downsizing."